Feng Shui is about creating a pleasing and harmonious space that attracts positive energy. This energy or Chi comes in two flavors – good and bad. The goal is to create an environment that maximizes good Chi flow. In order to accomplish this goal, practitioners combine art and science in terms of placement.

Getting back to your house, if it is not selling, there may be an overabundance of bad Chi which is turning off potential buyers. You need to reverse that bad Chi and accentuate the positive Chi. Make sense? Good. Let’s continue.

The first thing you need to do is start on the outside of your home and inspect it close up and from a distance. Get a friend to join you so that both of you can compare notes on overall impressions. Is there anything outside that is a turn-off or may cause potential buyers to shy away? Excessive lawn art, landscaping that has not been weeded or the lack of any landscaping can be quite a turn-off. What you may consider precious in terms of your little lawn gnome may really turn off prospective buyers. Create a clean entrance leading to your home that looks inviting.

Keep in mind that good landscaping can increase curb appeal and the asking price of your home. Therefore, if you did not have landscaping before and you want to install it now in order to make your home more attractive for selling, consult with a professional. You cannot afford to waste your time on a potential mistake.

If you don’t really have a front lawn area to speak of, focus on your entry way to create a welcoming look. A well-lit entrance earns kudos and is a major part of Feng Shui. If your entry way is large, display a lush green plant near the entrance or some fresh flowers to brighten the area. Mirrors are a great idea for any hallways leading from the entrance into the home. Feng Shui mirrors help reflect any rushing energy coming from the outdoors and slow it down. However, you do not want to put a mirror just opposite of the front door as that will just bounce back any energy just entering the home, preventing any positive Chi from circulating.

Part of Feng Shui is about reducing the clutter in your life or what might be perceived as clutter by a prospective home buyer. Remove as many knick-knacks as possible and reduce the personal belongings to a bare minimum. By keeping your home looking as clutter-free as possible, the prospective home buyer can see what “could” be if they were to purchase your home. It’s all about the possibilities that the prospect perceives as they are viewing your home.

Dusting is important as well. Dust everything from the ceiling fan blades to the baseboards. Your home may be all about clean lines and less clutter, but if there are dust bunnies chasing your prospective home buyers around, that could be a big turn-off. The same thing applies to animals as well. Since they shed, you will want to clean up any errant fur and keep Fido or Snowball from meandering through your home when prospects are expected.

The kitchen gadgets and appliances should also be kept to a minimum. Too much stuff out on the counters, even if the kitchen is immaculate, can be distracting and look cluttered. And as most people have discovered about Feng Shui, clutter or the perception of clutter is a big no-no. The same principle applies to the bathrooms as well. Put your curling iron, hair dryer and hot rollers out of sight. Put your toiletries in the medicine cabinets or out of site. Invoke a spa type of feel in the bathroom so that prospective home buyers associate the room with relaxation and pampering.

One last trick is to use aromatherapy in your home in anticipation of prospective home buyers coming to walk through your home. The smell of cinnamon alludes to fresh baked goodies. Peppermint or citrus in a home office or family room appeals to the senses and is fresh and clean. Use vanilla or lavender in the bathrooms and master bedroom to simulate a calm and tranquil space.

By taking care of first impressions like landscaping and the front entrance, you have won half the battle in Feng Shui terms. The most important areas you really need to concentrate on are the master bedroom, bathrooms and kitchen. These are the primary concerns of home buyers. If they perceive that they could relax, eat and sleep well in these rooms, then you just might end up with a sold sign outside your home.

Escrow is useful when negotiating large service contracts – for example, when a freelancer wants to receive payment before beginning a project, but the buyer is hesitant to provide payment before seeing the finished work. By using an escrow agency, the payment can be made (reassuring the seller) but not released until specific qualifications are met (reassuring the buyer). Escrow is also very useful for home purchases.

How Escrow Works: Understanding the Escrow Agreement Process

The seller and buyer both open an account with an escrow agency. Payment is made to the escrow agency by the buyer, and the deed, title, or other property is handed over by the seller. The escrow agency acts as a neutral third party, holding both the property and the payment until the necessary qualifications are met. These qualifications are generally laid out in the contract, and may include a home inspection, property renovations, completion of a service, and so on.

When the qualifications are met, payment is released to the seller and the property is released to the buyer. If property is being purchased, the deed or title is then transferred to the buyer’s name.

In all cases, an escrow agency remains a neutral third party. They will not advise either party on the actions that they should take, provide tax advice, or provide legal advice. They simply hold property and payment while other things are negotiated. Knowing this is a crucial part of understanding the escrow process.

What Can an Escrow Agency Do?

• An escrow agency can draw up documents and help negotiate the contract between parties. An escrow agent can also facilitate the contract signing and other paperwork.




• An escrow agency will confirm a clear title or deed. This means that they will check to make sure there are no liens, owed debts, or repossessions pending on the property.




• An escrow agent will help transfer the title or deed into the new owner’s name and file any necessary paperwork to do so with the state, county, and city.




• An escrow agency will receive funds from the buyer, hold them until the contract is fulfilled, and disperse them according to the contract.




• An escrow agency will act as a liaison between the buyer and the seller.

If you are purchasing or selling a large service package, house, car, or other valuable property, it may be wise to consider using an escrow agency. The agency will be able to prevent problems and disputes before they start, by holding money and property and acting as a neutral third party.

By choosing to have an escrow agreement, you can protect your property. You can also save time that you would otherwise spend negotiating and money you might otherwise spend on legal fees. If you are making a large transaction, whether business or personal, escrow simply makes sense.

Here are five ideas to increase the value of your property:

1. Curb appeal. Curb appeal is the immediate charm or personality a home has. Some homes ooze with personality while others don’t get a second look. What’s the difference? Often it’s nothing more than trimming a few bushes and trees and adding some flowers.

   Take a look at the curb appeal of your home. Could it use some improvement? In addition to the landscaping, does your home need a new coat of paint? A new door? What about new hardware on the door and some lighting fixtures? Small touches like a new porch light can make a world of difference.

2. Landscaping. Often our back yard becomes a catch-all. We put our belongings back there. We let the pets hang out back there and our yard becomes neglected. However, with a bit of sprucing up, a backyard can become a sanctuary. A few trees, maybe a deck or a patio and some flowers, and suddenly would-be home owners are picturing themselves hanging out in your back yard.

   Landscaping also doesn’t have to be expensive. With a good plan, you can do much of the work yourself which will save thousands of dollars.

3. Bathroom redo. When people purchase a home there are two main areas they are generally very picky about – the kitchen and the bathroom. Kitchen remodels can be extremely expensive. However, a bathroom often needs just a few simple touches to get tremendous return on investment. Some of the areas to look at improving in your bathroom include:

   * Your tile – make sure the bathroom tile is clean, in good repair, and up to date. Cracked pink tile from the 50s isn’t going to give your home any selling points.

   * Your fixtures – a new bathroom faucet and light fixtures can instantly update a bathroom.

   * Your paint – a neutral paint can clean up a space and make a small bathroom feel larger than it is.

   * Bathtub, sink, and toilet – these can be more expensive fixes. However, you can find great pieces on display at your local home store. Look for overstocks, last year’s models and items that have been returned to get more bang for your buck.

4. The kitchen. A kitchen is often the center of a home. And spending money to upgrade your kitchen almost always increases the value of your property. Updating your counter-tops, appliances, flooring and cupboards generates a good return on investment.

   However, your kitchen may not need a full redo. You can reface or paint cupboards, add tile back-splashes and update hardware to give your kitchen new life.

5. Carpet and paint. One of the easiest ways to increase the value of your home is to repaint the walls a neutral and welcoming color and to replace the carpet. This is something that can be accomplished in a weekend if you hire folks to help. Just remember to repaint the walls before you replace the carpet.

If you’re looking for a good return on investment and want to increase the value of your home, these five items are a good place to start. There are other bigger projects you can look at like adding new windows, building an extension onto your home or adding luxury items like a hot tub or outdoor cooking area. However, it’s always smart to start with the basics and go from there.

So the question is, who is eligible? Are you?

• * You’re eligible if this is your first time buying a home and you enter into a binding contract to buy a home on or before April 30, 2010 and close on the sale by June 30, 2010.
• * You’re also eligible for the full credit of $8,000 if you make less than $125,000 a year for single filers. The original income ceiling was $75,000. Married couples filing jointly can now receive full credit if they make less than $225,000. The original ceiling was $150,000.
• * You also qualify for the credit even if you’ve owned a home before, just not as your principal home during the three years prior to your home purchase.
• * It should also be noted that married couples do not qualify for the credit unless both have not previously owned a home or owned a primary residence in the past three years.
• * You’re only eligible if you’re 18 years or older or your spouse is 18 years or older.
• * The first-time home buyer credit is equal to 10% of your home’s purchase price with a limit of $8,000 and if your home costs more than $80,000, you’re not eligible for the credit.
• * Additionally, if you buy the home from a relative, you’re not eligible for the credit.
• * It should also be noted that military personnel and some federal employees serving outside the country have an additional year to qualify for the credit.
• * If you bought your home at any time during 2009, you can claim the credit when you file your 2009 taxes in 2010. And if you purchased your home on or before November 6, 2009, you can amend your 2008 tax return and claim the credit.
• * Finally, if you purchase a mobile home or trailer they both qualify for the credit, as long as they’re your principal home. Motor homes and RVs do not qualify for the credit.
• * The first time homebuyer credit is paid it’s applied to the taxes you owe, thus lowering your income taxes by up to $8,000. If you are in a low income bracket or income tax exempt, you can still file for the credit and receive it in the form of a refund.

If you haven’t taken advantage of the first-time home buyer credit and are in the market for a new home, you still have time. However, time is running out. Go out and find the home of your dreams!

In late 2009, investing in an REO investment property may make sense if you buy right. Here are some key factors to help you buy “right.”

1) Positive cash-flow?

2) Cash-on-cash return?

3) Pay-back period?

4) Exit strategy windows?

Let’s start with number 1) Positive cash-flow. The simple equation is income from rent minus expenses. If you can rent your investment property for $1,000 per month and your mortgage is $510 per month, then your cash-flow is $500 per month. You would still need to subtract insurance, property taxes, any utilities, and a vacancy reserve.

Let’s assume:

* Insurance = $70 per month
* Property taxes = $100 per month
* Utilities = $30 per month
* Vacancy at 2 months per year = 2 * $510 = $1,020 per year = $85 per month

Total expenses outside of mortgage = $285

Total expenses = $510 mortgage + $285 = $795.

Cash-flow = $1,000 – $795 = $205 per month.

So in this example, the investment property passes our cash-flow test. We would earn $205 per month in cash-flow.

Now let’s check number 2) Cash-on-cash return. For our example, we are looking at a $100,000 house with 20% down or $20,000.

The cash-on-cash (COC) is ($205*12)/$20,000 = 12% per year

COC doesn’t mean much when you take it in a vacuum. So we compare it to what you would get had you put your money in a “safe” investment like a T-bill. Today’s 10 year T-bill rate is 3.5% according to the US Treasury. Our 12% looks pretty good compared to 3.5%.

But investing in real estate is riskier than putting our money in a T-bill. So to take it one step further, we figure out our “risk-adjusted return” or RAR.

RAR = 12% – 3.5% = 9.5%

So does this pass our cash-on-cash test? This also depends. But if we have a rule for ourselves to expect a 2-times return on the additional risk that we take then yes, this passes our test…

2 times 3.5% = 7%.

Since our RAR of 9.5% is greater than 7%, we pass our criteria.

Let’s move on to number 3) Pay-back period. A real estate investment property is a long term play. You saw that we compared our RAR to a 10-year T-bill. Expect to hold the investment for many, many years.

However, we do want to know when we will get our initial investment of $20,000 back. Based on the projected net cash-flow of $205 per month, we would get back $2,460 per year. In a little over 8 years, we will get our $20,000 initial investment back. So our payback period is 8 years. Since this is less than the 10-year T-bill maturity, I would say that we’re okay with the pay-back period test.

Our last test, number 4) Exit strategy windows is also important. Even though we may have all the right intention to hold our investment for the long-term, 8 years in this example, something can come up that would require us to shed our investment earlier than planned. Is there a way to sell the investment property without incurring a loss? Is there a way to sell it for a profit?

Ideally, you would be able to answer yes to the two questions above. Luckily, since the property passed tests 1 to 3, it will almost always be easy to sell. Why is that? Let’s take a look…

• The historic rate of return that has investors excited has been 10%. Our investment yields a COC of 12%.
• We can safely expect our investment property to go up 2% per year due to inflation. This makes it a better value over time.
• If we reinvest our cash-flow in a T-bill, we would accelerate our pay-back period. This is slightly cheating, but earning income is earned income.

This property passed test number 4.

So if real estate is such an attractive investment, why did so many people get burned?

… They violated tests 1-4.

But for investors who do follow the rules, what can they do with the $205 per month cash-flow? …

How about using that money to lease a car like a Toyota Camry? For free? For as long as they want?

Isn’t that nice? Having the right REO investment property makes this possible.

The volatile housing market brings out scammers like cockroaches in an unclean kitchen. Being a real estate investor, I have seen many unclean kitchens. The good news about unclean kitchens is that the mess is obvious. Rental scams, on the other hand, appear neat but can make a mess of your rental property business if you fall for them. Here is what to look for so that you can screen out rental scams.

One of my favorite places to post for rent ads is Craigslist. It’s a great free website where landlords and renters can meetup and potentially do business. Because of its popularity, Craigslist is also a magnet for internet scammers.

Rental scammers use two elements in their effort to unguard an unsuspecting landlord. The first element that they use to try an instill trust is what I call the church technique. They pretend to be a pastor or a reverend or a missionary or someone that is associated with a church. In most people’s mind, church equals good – as in a good psychological technique. See the email that I received below for an example:

How to sell a timeshare is a question that is coming up quite often these days. One of the reasons is that many people are having financial difficulty during these bad economic times. In addition to that there are many people who bought timeshares thinking they would use it often, but then realize that they don’t have time for it anymore.

The timeshare market has really been hit hard during this economic downturn. Part of the problem was self-inflicted because just like the single family home real estate industry they overbuilt thinking that demand would continue going up and up. The timeshare market, unlike the single family home market is actually a pretty good model, though. Think about it. You build a cookie cutter; big complex … each unit costs relatively little to build as part of a whole … and the builder gets to sell it 100 times over … what a profit!

Now, the buyer has a problem on the flip side when trying to figure out how to sell a timeshare. Again, there are many reasons why a buyer would want to sell. But, the biggest problem is that they’re competing with the builders themselves. In a timeshare resale market, the builder has an advantage because they can discount pretty heavily. If you bought the timeshare at retail prices, say $40,000 for a two week stay, the builder can discount up to 50% and likely still make a profit. Why? Remember they can “sell” the same unit up to 100x or more!

So, how to sell a timeshare is a tough problem for a seller. The first key thing to do is to price your unit correctly. Look at several different resale websites to see how much others are reselling their units for. Keep in mind, even the unit owners are reselling their units. Many owner-sellers don’t want to take a hit in selling, so they keep the price at or around what they bought it for. This is not a good idea. People familiar with the timeshare resale market know where to go for discounted units.

Make sure you know all of the assets that your timeshare has to offer. For example one of the hot selling points for many timeshares is the ability to exchange your unit for “like” units in other parts of the world. How to sell a timeshare using your assets is best described like the following. You should know which exchange program you are in, if any. Check out what amenities you have in your complex. Do you have a pool, concierge or even a grocery store within the complex? And, is your unit deeded or not? Deeded is a big issue for those looking to pass it on to the next generation in perpetuity.

Now, if you’re looking to sell your timeshare quickly, you really should look at all options. There are companies will buy at a fixed price and they pay quickly. There are also companies who allow you to post your unit, but for a fee. Then it’s up to you to list, show, price, etc. But the headache of selling, paperwork, etc. is on you.

Oftentimes, the question of how to sell a timeshare is not as important as when to sell a timeshare. The best time to sell a timeshare is not when you are desperate nor when the market is flooded with timeshares. In either case, you’ll likely be selling a steep discount. Just keep some simple ideas in mind: research the timeshare resale market within your area, price your unit appropriately, perhaps even aggressively if you are in a hurry, look at all the amenities your unit / complex has to offer, and don’t be afraid to sell at a “loss” if you need to.